Season of Peace Reflection for 9/19

Carl Horton

Isaiah 48:17–19

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your own good, who leads you in the way you should go. O that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your prosperity would have been like a river, and your success like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.

Reflection: Within the United States there is also a growing gap between the rich and the poor. The US economic and political system has enabled 1 percent of Americans to take in almost a one-quarter of our nation’s income every year and to control over 40 percent of our nation’s wealth. This growing economic inequality is becoming untenable. Millions in the United States are not working. Millions more have lost their homes to foreclosure. Retirees and those nearing retirement see their retirement savings plummet every time the stock market takes a dive. Poverty in the United States is the highest it has been in 50 years.

Some Americans have taken to the streets, calling for change. They are no longer willing to give their consent and cooperation to a system that allows so much wealth and power to be concentrated in the hands of 1 percent of the population. The protesters say they represent “the 99 percent.”

Question for discernment: How can Presbyterians help transform complicated structures of injustice and oppression and address the threat of environmental degradation?

Prayer: O God, in a world of growing economic inequality, teach us how to share the resources you have entrusted to our care. Lead us to open reservoirs of wealth so that prosperity would flow like a river, meeting the needs of all.